Even though I’m not running the race this weekend, I was curious about the new NYC Half course, so I ran it on my own! Well, as best I could without official road closures. Here is what I found:

Manage Your Effort Well Early

Miles 1-2: This is going to be a FAST start! Running from the Grand Army Plaza to Manhattan Bridge on Flatbush Avenue is all downhill. Runners should take care to keep their pace in check as they pass by Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.

Jorge Ospina bested his 4-year-old half marathon PR at the NYC Half this past weekend. His official time was 1:21:55 (6:15 per mile). [Results] The 44-year-old from Ann Arbor, MI is currently training for the Boston Marathon so we’re excited to see what he can do with tapered legs later next month!

Mark Shilling of Summit, NJ capped off his breakthrough spring season with another big PR at the London Marathon. After setting a new personal best at the NYC Half (1:18:04), Mark dropped 9-minutes off his marathon best in London. Thanks to very even pacing (out in 1:21:23) his official time was 2:43:10. [Full Results] He was 74th out of 4269 runners in the 40-44 age group.

Michael Koscuiszka was ‘running with the bulls’ over the last three miles of the NYC Half. He was literally charging to the line as his fastest miles were 11, 12 and 13, finishing in 1:30:01. His game plan of hanging back early paid off in the end…

I had thought about going out with the 1:30 pace group but instead hung back (~7 min/mi) for the first few miles, to include the Great Hill of Central Park. I settled into race pace (~6:49) as I exited CP and headed down 7th Ave through Times Square. That was maybe the best part – my wife is in a Broadway show and I ran by her in front of her theater.

The wind blowing west across 42nd St was a nice boost over to the West Side Highway. I kept it up until the 10 mile mark. Then I hit 6:40, 6:35, 6:30. I got scared coming out of the hill of the Battery Park tunnel/underpass (watch lost satellite) and into the headwind off the East River but took a dead sprint over the last 1/4 mile. It was great 🙂

Chris Brennan of Brooklyn, NY dropped the hammer down the West Side Highway today at the NYC Half. Chris is a member of our local training group with the NY Flyers. Since joining our group a few years ago he’s PR’d at most distances and continues to improve each season.

This morning he continued his hot streak with another half marathon PR but the best part was how he finished the race. Chris’ official time was 1:27:45 (Full results) and his final two miles were his fastest by far (Mile 12 – 6:20, Mile 13 – 6:28).

Coach Ann Alyanak recently reported two more Run SMART PRs at the NYC Half. Ann’s longtime clients Emily Lilja and Jason Goodhand both took over 6 minutes off their previous bests. Emily finished in 2:00:16 and Jason clocked 1:51:50.

Run SMART client Emily Fried smashed her half marathon PR by running 1:46:48 in the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday. She ran with great inspiration honoring our dear friend Kay Mueller who is currently battling Colorectal Cancer. If you’d like to donate to Emily and Kay’s cause to fight Colorectal Cancer visit Emily’s page.

Emily’s previous PR was 1:50:43. At the 10k mark she was 52:12 or 8:24 pace per mile which would have put her right at her previous PR if she hadn’t run such a strong second half! [Full results]

Earlier this month we wrote about Run SMART client Cathrine Wolden refusing to stop getting faster after all these years. This past weekend she finished 2nd in her age group (40-44) at the NYC Half this past weekend in a new personal best. Cathrine ran 1:23:46, one minutes and 18 seconds faster than her previous best and almost three minutes faster than her performance in the same race last year! [Full results]

When Rob DeLong signed up for private coaching six weeks ago his short term goal was to finish his first half marathon in 2:05. As a newbie runner the longest Rob had ever run in one run before getting started with Run SMART was 15k or 9.3 miles. We’re happy to report that Rob smashed his goal time by almost 10 minutes at the NYRR’s NYC Half Marathon last weekend.

His official time was 1:56:59 (8:56 per mile). Full Results. Rob’s Run SMART coach Brian Rosetti noted afterwards, “The game plan was to run conservative early and break the race up into three parts slowly getting faster as the race went on. He really nailed the pacing and now he’s feeling great and ready to focus on getting faster.” Rob’s 10k split was 56:44 (9:07 per mile) so he came home a lot faster over the second half of the race! And we should note that in his last 10k earlier this year he ran 58:05, so even while going out conservatively he still managed to set a new 10k PR during the race!